Ban appoints experienced Australian national as new UN disaster risk reduction chief

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Australia’s Robert Glasser as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Mr. Glasser will succeed Margareta Wahlström of Sweden, to whom Mr. Ban is grateful for her dedication and excellent leadership of UNISDR over the past seven years, according to the spokesperson of the Secretary-General.

Mr. Glasser has over 20 years of experience in in disaster response and fighting poverty. Currently, he is the Executive-in-Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), where he has focussed on the humanitarian impacts of climate change.

Prior to this role, Mr. Glasser worked with CARE International, where he had been Secretary General since 2007.

Before joining CARE International, Mr. Glasser was Chief Executive of CARE Australia, overseeing aid and humanitarian relief programmes in Cambodia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and the Middle East, and he previously held the post of Assistant Director General of the Australian Government aid programme.